Photo to Line Art Converter
Clean black outlines from any photo, for tracing, painting, embroidery patterns and colouring. Free, in your browser.
How it works
Open a photo
A portrait, a pet, a building or a landscape: JPG, PNG, HEIC or WebP, at full resolution, in this tab.
Choose the drawing
Pencil sketch, line art or a colouring page. Move Detail and Line weight until it looks drawn, not traced.
Download the PNG
At the photo's own size, ready to print, colour in, paint over or use as a reference.
Photo to line art: turn a photo into a line drawing
This photo to line art converter online free draws clean black lines from a photograph: faces, pets, buildings, products. Turn photo into line drawing in a click, then adjust detail and line weight. It is a line art generator that finds real edges rather than applying a filter.
Convert photo to line drawing for tracing, painting, embroidery patterns or colouring pages. As a picture outline maker it can turn image into outline only, for a minimalist line art generator look.
Need vectors? The image to line art vector converter turns the drawing into SVG paths for Cricut, laser or print.
Photo to line drawing AI?
The lines come from an edge-detection method designed for drawings (difference-of-Gaussians), which reads like a hand-inked outline. It runs in your browser with no photo to line drawing ai upload.
How to convert an image to line art in Photoshop
In Photoshop: desaturate, duplicate the layer, invert it, set the blend mode to Colour Dodge, then Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. This page does the equivalent in one step, with cleaner lines and no subscription.
Why it matters
Drawn from the photo itself
Every line follows an edge in your picture: no generated face, no invented detail, nothing that is not in the photo.
Nothing is uploaded
The drawing is made in your browser. Family photos stay on your device.
Line art for tracing and colouring
Line art and colouring pages come out as clean black lines on white, which print well and trace well onto paper, canvas or a light box.
Questions
Is there a photo to line art converter app?
No app needed: it works in any browser, including on a phone.
How do I get thicker lines?
Raise the line weight, or lower the detail so only the strongest edges are drawn.
How do I turn a photo into a pencil sketch?
Open the photo, keep the style on Pencil sketch and download. Detail darkens the strokes; Line weight makes them broader and softer.
How do I turn a photo into line art?
Choose Line art. Lower the Detail to leave out skin, fabric and background texture, so only the main outlines are drawn.
Can I make a colouring page from a photo?
Yes: choose Colouring page for bold black outlines with the specks cleared away. For a whole printable book, use the KDP colouring page maker.
Is this AI?
No. It is image processing, run in your browser: the pencil sketch divides the photo by a blurred copy of itself, and line art finds the edges with a difference of two blurs. Nothing is generated, and nothing is uploaded.
Which photos work best?
A sharp photo with clear light and shade. A plain background gives the cleanest line art; a busy one draws busy.